PrepTest 133

Incorrect. Waller implies she doesn't believe it exists, as the public doesn't believe in it and they would if it exists. Chin, however, doesn't provide information telling us how he feels about ESP—just that even if it existed, the public might not believe in it because of high-powered skeptics.

Incorrect. Chin disagrees with this statement—he doesn't think anything can be demonstrated to the satisfaction of all skeptics. Waller doesn't discuss skeptics—just the general public—so we don't know how she feels about this answer.

Incorrect. Waller doesn't discuss the skeptics, so this answer is out of scope of her argument. Chin doesn't assess the strength of the skeptics' case, so it's also out of scope of his.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument/Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Valid/Flawed

Question Type:
Point at Issue

Stimulus Summary:
W: Anyone with ESP could demonstrate it and become rich and famous, so if it existed, it'd already be widely accepted.

C: Some skeptics won't believe anything, and the elite back them up, stopping the news from covering it, so the public wouldn't necessarily accept it.

Answer Anticipation:
Each of these speakers says a lot more than usual! These are much more involved statements than in the average Point at Issue question. As such, it's a little less possible to go point by point to see if there's overlap and disagreement.

Instead, we should identify concepts that show up in both. Both discuss ESP, but that's the topic in question, so that's a bit broad. Both discuss public opinion on the subject, though they seem to agree that this is that ESP doesn't exist. Other than that, there's not a lot of overlap, so let's focus on answers that discuss those areas.

Answer Explanation:
Waller uses this failure to imply ESP doesn't exist, so she'd agree with this answer. Chin, on the other hand, believes that the public could be manipulated by the cultural elite and skeptics, so their disbelief isn't evidence against the existence of ESP. This answer deals with a concept that both speakers address and they're on opposite sides of it, so this is the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
We think it's unlikely that anyone would have a strong anticipation that matched the correct answer here. This highlights the importance of identifying areas of overlap between the two speakers in Point at Issue questions, and then focusing on answers that deal with those concepts.

Incorrect. It's implied (though not directly stated by either) that the public doesn't believe in ESP, so this would be, if anything, a point of agreement.